Intermittence
by Moro-moro
Summary: What if anything you wanted came true; what if you could have a world without pain? A world where only the good things, the things you wanted came to be? In Infinium, anything is possible: Even finding the love of your life... Too bad it's not real.
1. Prologue

**A/N: **_A secondary project I took on once a friend of mine told me I needed to take a break from Gothix (O_O!). I'll try to balance the two equally, since I'm rather proud of both universes, but especially this one because I've never written anything of them this sort. This is the teaser/prologue. ^_^_

* * *

**.[inter].(mittance). **

The sky was bright with light, reflecting off the microchips embedded in the city's infrastructure. It was pleasantly warm, and the people who still ventured out of their respective interface orbitals' strolled the streets, holographs in hand and storage units charged to the zenith. The static binary chatter filled the light breeze, mixing with various tongues and voices, creating melodies that were soft to some, but a harsh reminder of the state of things to others.

Fai clicked his feet against the edge of the building, wiggling his fingers rapidly. Files flashed before his eyes, and he gave a slight hum. All at once, his screen faded to black, windows filing down to the left in quick succession with a soft 'pop'. He rose, careful of his balance atop the sixty-story communications tower. He pulled off his lens-screen, tucking the frames into a pocket in his jumpsuit.

The scene was different now.

It was cold and dreary, wind howling insensitively against the risers. The tower shook under his feet, and Fai was grateful for the gravity program he'd constructed for the simple task of climbing these things. He cast his uncovered eyes about the city. No one roamed. There weren't even lights on to ward against the stormy day. The streets were cracked and littered, the exotic park's shrubbery was dead and brittle, trash whirled in vortexes against empty alleys and the buildings— which were once so preciously maintained—were shabby and dilapidated from the planet's harsh seasons.

Such was the state of his world, Planet 53241.

And as such, the Interplanetary Councils had deemed the planet's usage of holographic mirages legal and necessary to all. Every hour of the day, every day of the year (which was still, surprisingly enough, measured in the time span of The World) were they to be broadcast and received through the citizens' transmitters. The Council refused to admit that Planet 53241 was yet another to fall into despair as The World crumbled, spreading its cancer through the interfaces of Infinium.

Fai checked the time telepathically through his internal microchip. Once checked, however, he manually turned it off, muttering a string of binary under his breath.

Off.

He stood straight, holding his hand in front of him. He flexed his fingers, the wires, laced between his muscles and veins, sparked with a sudden surge of electricity. He pushed against the wave, sending it to the tips of his fingers, then he reached.

His fingers probed against the thick air, finding nothing for a millisecond; then, however, he found purchase.

Thousands of super-charged atoms gathered at his fingers, and he moved them, creating a portal straight into the mainframe of Infinium.

Then he jumped from the tower, diving directly to the ground.

For a horrifying second—one that never seemed to lose its thrill—he was in freefall. Then he was swallowed whole by the most wondrous and terrifying thing in the universe: the Central Mainframe.

* * *

What if anything you wanted came true;

What if you could have a world without pain?

A world where only the good things,

The things _you _wanted came to be?

And if it went wrong—

Which, it never did, unless you wanted it too—

You could disconnect…

And try again?

Would you do it?

Would you control it?

Could you control it?

Or would you let it control you?

2036 A.E.

A time of Infinium.

A time where the technology of our time

Is no longer dreamt of,

But a reality.

A time of peace.

Seemingly.

* * *


	2. Zero2

**A/N: **_I seriously have no hacking or programming experience. All this stuff is completely made up, and will be explained in time. Kurogane comes in next chapter, yaaaay!!_**

* * *

**

**One: [/Zero.2]**

_I'm glad you've finally decided to grace us, D._

He gave a low, dramatic, sweeping bow; "I had to bypass a particularly nasty holographic mirage today."

The air around him fuzzed in and out from black, patches of bright green binary flashing around his body.

_I know it's you, **but**— _

**404 Error: RESTRICTED AREA.  
****AUTHORIZED PERSONEL ONLY  
****404 Error: RESTRICTED AREA.  
****AUTHORIZED PERSONEL ONLY  
****Please navigate away from this sector immediately.  
****Please navigate away…**

…_please designate your pass code, full name, and status within this area. _

"Code number: 574920817482077521AlphaBeta50 under provision D under the YI code of 1999 A.E. designated by member YI created from CR," he recited dutifully; "Fai Flowright, designation: Hacker D."

The room shifted suddenly, leaving Fai swimming in a sea of encryption strings, programming surrounding his entire body, lighting the dark blackness of cyber-space with their warm green glow.

One by one, the zeros and ones formed into four walls, each phasing to bright white one by one.

He stood in the center, members popping into existence around him. The last to materialize was their leader.

She was dressed impeccably; Fai supposed that even though she was pretty in the Mainframe that encoding did no justice to her features. Microchips glittered under her pale skin, her nails done completely in silver—most didn't know it was liquid mercury programmed into shape. Black lace made completely of binary shifted around her lithe body, her hair falling down to her backside. Her metal heels clicked insistently against the hardened encryptions as she paced languidly from member to member. It was rumored that she was so heavily hardwired that she wasn't even human anymore—Yuuko Ichihara definitely knew the effects of Infinium.

"We've lost our **A**."

The twenty-four remaining members gasped in horror. A girl, dressed in shorts and a tank top adjusted her avatar's glasses; "I'm not surprised," she said chillily. A few hissed her quiet, staticy waves of programming washing over her slim form.

Fai wasn't too fond of Satsuki, their designated S Hacker; however, she was the only one who could program the Central Mainframe's AI system, nicknamed "Beast" by the [/Zero2] s because of its inability to tame. Satsuki was the only reason that they had yet to be discovered.

"Did we lose them to Infinium or to the Programming?" A small boy asked quietly, holding a cup of tea to his lips. He adjusted himself upon his chair, excess falling away in a shower of ones.

"**A** has encrypted himself," Yuuko answered grimly, seating herself gracefully in the air. A silver chaise flitted into being underneath her long legs as she stretched out upon them.

"Surely you can crack it," a voice piped up.

Minoru snorted, sipping his tea; "When **Z**-san says that he is encrypted, rest assured, she has tried to break the code. I assume it's an Infinity Code?"

"Smart boy," Yuuko purred, holographic smoke pouring from a microchip pipe.

"I am only **Y** for a reason."

Fai leaned against the wall, flicking his fingers in short succession; "**A** was heavily influenced from the outside. If my information is correct—"

"And it always is," the woman replied smugly.

Fai gave a soft nod of his head, his eyes scanning the files that were projected across his retinas; "His lover is part of the Programmers. An original descendent of Kinomoto, who was Reed's right hand."

Faint twittering began to echo across the [/Zero2] s private sector. Avatars faded in and out in rapid succession, all eyes on Fai. He glanced around the room, then nodded, snapping his fingers. Instantaneously, all members of the [/Zero2] group had the same information he did, and all eyes faded into a glassy surface of zeros and ones. Slowly, they all came out of their information stupors.

"Do you think—" "**A** wouldn't have been that foolish—" "It's possible he encrypted himself to protect himself from the Programmers—"

Yuuko stood solemnly, clapping her hands with the faint, hollow, metallic sound of microchip against microchip. "I suggest that we adjourn for today. I will be assigning new designations and codes at the next meeting. We will, as always, seal this sector. **D**, **Y**, and **S** will help me. I will transmit your information. But, if you do not return, your information will be erased, and your internal hardware crashed—Encryption is the last you will worry about."

Twenty-four heads nodded, then twenty-one blinked out of existence.

Yuuko turned to the three remaining, and then nodded, spreading her fingers to one wall; "Start the process," she ordered.

Then it all disintegrated into the firewalls.

**X**

Growing up on Planet 53241, affectionately called Nivea by its natives, was boring. Fai was a bright child, and excelled easily in all subjects—but by far, his most natural subject was programming and hardware.

At one point, Fai had even been considered to join the ranks of the Programmers, the elite few who kept Infinium under control. However, the idea did not appeal to Fai, who believed that technology was ruining people's lives. He'd seen his own parents waste away in Infinium; in fact, he'd barely been able to meet them because they were so wrapped up in their virtual lives.

No… Hacking had been more his forte. Maybe it was its illegal edge—Hacking was designated as 'Felony H'; the eighth on the list of twenty-six unforgivable sins in Infinium. Punishment for Hacking was a total-system crash, complete deletion of internal files… then execution after a year of living technology-less. Maybe it was because it gave him access that Infinium normally didn't hold for him… He had _control_ as a Hacker, which he promptly discovered when he crashed his parent's information… (This coincidentally, was 'Felony K', which was punishable by prompt execution.)

It didn't really matter why he enjoyed Hacking, Fai realized… What mattered was what he could _do_ with it.

Upon this realization came his induction into the [/Zero2] group. He'd heard rumors of a confederation of Hackers from across the far reaches of the Universe, from The World to planets as far fetched as Planet 10390102749-10385-2. They were the elitists of the Hacking world, who operated in the shadows to bring a peaceful end to Infinium.

They worked in hierarchy, with twenty-six main members, the members ranging from designation A to Z, mocking the code of ethics from Infinium, and the twenty-six Programmers who upheld it.

It was the greatest honor in Fai's sixteen years.

**X**

"**D**. Come with me," Yuuko instructed once their meeting sector had been collapsed.

The two others fizzed out of existence, leaving Fai and Yuuko floating comfortably in an information stream.

"What do _you_ think happened to **A**?" Yuuko asked mysteriously.

Fai sighed, "He fell back into the lures."

Yuuko grinned cattishly, "Perceptive little one, aren't you?" she sniggered, a frosty glass of alcohol materializing in her outstretched fingers. She took a sip, then wrinkled her nose, "Low bit-rate. Ew."

Fai sniggered lightly. "**Z**-san, you should really upgrade to DSL."

The woman looked offended, "What an archaic joke," she tutted, laughing nonetheless. She sighed, "That would be the third 'A' we've lost. I fear for Subaru next."

"Subaru-san is a strong **B**."

"But _three_! Even my own information gathering is failing me," Yuuko lamented, "I really need to expand my search parameters to the Council… But normally, **Y** takes care of that."

"Isn't his sister a part of the Council's Programming?"

Yuuko nodded. "I have a job for you, **D**. I need your information gathering; do it, and you can consider your debt to me paid."

Fai nodded, "I'd be honored."

Yuuko smiled deviously, "_Be careful of who you meet online_," she said ominously, fading from view.


	3. Chatroom

**A/N: **_It took longer than I expected. Sorry!! XP Yay, Kurogane's introduced~!_

**

* * *

**

Two: Chatroom

Fai stood unprotected amidst a data storm. Numbers and information battered at his unprotected frame, threatening to overload his own data drives. He snapped once; pure darkness swallowed him whole.

"/A. Command prompt alpha. Open manual menu, overwrite command fifty-two forty."

A large glowing screen appeared in the gloom, dwarfing Fai's shadowy figure, displaying over a thousand overwrite options.

"Terminal code: Assist/."

The screen shrunk until it was the size of a television monitor, listing about five options.

"Voice command optional, preferred. Activate active manual overdrive."

The screen flashed through the spectrum, finally settling on an ice blue screen, the scrollbar blinking, alone, against the interface.

**P A S S W O R D? _**

"Overwrite code fifty-nine-sector-B; Creator code CLREE*MIHA2395_ dashCommanderfour."

**ERROR: RESTRICTED  
****ERROR: RESTRICED  
****ANY ATTEMPTS TO BYPASS ENCRYPTION SYSTEMATICS  
****WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE TERMINATION  
****PLEASE NAVIGATE AWAY.  
****5…  
****4…**

Fai hissed through his teeth, reaching out, stretching his hand into the screen: "Ctrl-Alt-Del," he snapped, crunching the screen in his fist with an ear-splitting shatter.

He stood in the pitch black silence, contemplating for a long time. He would have to create a new code to hack the Programmer's encrypted firewalls. He briefly contemplated leaving the mainframe for Nivea, then laughed, a quick, brisk sound against the echoing silence. He might as well start his secondary assignment, one that was the same for all [/Zero2] s: the closure and crashing of Infinium's gathering sites via handcrafted viruses. There were as many different species of viruses as the [/Zero2] s could think of, each strain painstakingly created by a different letter. Fai's were in the shape of small, silver phoenixes, which rained down fire that was corrosive to any sort of data programming, save for his own—he'd almost crashed his own hardware before he learned to program them to detect his personal data footprint.

"/A. Command prompt Alpha," he repeated. He stared long at the options, "Select menu, terminal code Assist/ . Manual override, maintenance program zero-five-forty. Voice command only."

The screen whirred slowly, separating itself into four terminals.

**C H O O S E A C T I O N_**

"Action (3a) INTERMITTENCE, subsection D: PROBABILITY."

**C H O O S E I N T E R F A C E_**

Fai paused for a long moment, "Expand parameters to: X/Y as X approaches plus/minus infinity; reset coordinates to default."

**WARNING: YOU ARE APPROACHING AN UNSAFE TERMINAL.  
****COMMAND PROMPT: ARE YOU SURE YOU WISH TO PROCEED?  
****TERMINAL IS NOT A SECURED SITE. **

"Proceed. Search command: Unoccupied vectors within this IP."

There was a sudden warping of light and sound as Fai was propelled forward into a vortex of bright white.

"Search completed; no unoccupied vectors within the search parameters," a cool female voice said, echoing in his ear; "Would you like to change parameters?"

"Proceed. Search command: Vectors with population under five point forty percent at all times, Council Real Time only."

Images flickered past Fai's peripheral vision as the search ran itself. It wasn't like he was expecting anything to turn up—a five point forty population rate was about one hit a day on Infinium, which was an impossible number considering the trillions of people logging online every second. In fact, Infinium averaged around four-point-five billion new occupants a day. Fai sighed, tapping his foot, causing the images around him to speed, a swirling maelstrom of data; five point forty was too low to ask for. Somewhere, sometime he would have to finally accept that he would have to close vectors with people inside, which was the same as murder, really. The time would have to come soon, too.

As the hacker's thoughts grew darker, the interface chirped quietly, drawing the blonde from his reverie.

"Search completed; five vectors were found within default coordinates. Of the five, three are Council designated overflow sites. Of the remaining two, one is a personal webpage consisting of personal photographs."

"The remaining site?"

"A chatroom."

"Thank you. Upload coordinates and address for search result five. Close program."

**X**

He wasn't an internet addict, or hell, even a casual user. In reality, he hated Infinium. He couldn't quite understand it.

He stood in the center of a pure white room, staring up at the walls; "Where the _hell_ am I?" he muttered, running his hand through his hair absently.

A string of unrelated letters appeared in front of his face, and he waved them away, slightly disorientated. "I wanted a safe place to train and look what I get—"

"Train what?"

He whirled around—a second ago, he could have sworn that the room was empty, save for himself. Now there was a weird-looking blonde leaning against the side of one of the white walls, eyes covered in screen-lenses, decked out like a cyber-punk Infinium junkie.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Ask no questions," The blonde instructed. "What are you training; why are you here?"

"I can ask the same."

The blonde looked at him from over his glasses, then with a sigh, whipped them off. "What's your name?"

"Kurogane," he said, crossing his arms irritably. There was something about the blonde that was off—maybe it was the way his skin seemed to jump with electricity, or the way his eyes glowed a faint blue, not unlike the way his old screen unit used to; or hell, it could be the way his clothes shifted styles every few seconds. Or the fact that he just answered a question the other man blatantly refused to answer.

"Well, well… Kuro-chan, where are you from?" the blonde asked, bouncing off the wall to stride towards Kurogane.

"Typo. My name's Kurogane," Kurogane said shortly.

"Wasn't. It's too long—I like to keep my fingers otherwise occupied. Where are you from?"

"Earth."

"The World?" the other man asked incredulously, "Don't believe it. In fact, I don't believe most things people tell me… So, forgive me. **System command: Program VERITAS**, run." And with that, he plunged his hand straight into Kurogane's heart.

**X**

This was the last thing Fai had expected, actually running into someone in the outdated chatroom. These things were barely used anymore—people preferred the company of virtual AIs created in Infinium than real people. Humans had too many flaws for other humans to actually deal with.

And it was someone from The World, the long dead planet Earth, at that. People didn't live on Earth anymore…did they? …Preposterous.

_And_ the man acted like a total newcomer to Infinium.

No, all those improbabilities at once was far too… implausible. In fact, his hard drive chirruped a sunny "Probability: Less than .005 percent" in the back of his processors.

In fact, it was far more likely that this "Kurogane" was a drone—or even a real agent—of the Programmers, or worse, the Council to out Hackers. Fai would be damned before he'd be caught by some stupid ploy to catch him off guard.

And just for these occasions, he had a special program. It was designed to strip the truth from the brain; nothing was safe from VERITAS's stringent searches.

The program was based on the fact that human brains are like computers. Memories, feelings, impulses, and vital bodily information are all stored in the brain, much like memory chips in a computer, and like a computer, instructions are input and are transmitted by series of electrical jolts. These electrical signals access different parts of the brain, and then the information accessed is relayed, again, by electricity. It is then rerouted by the body's version of wiring, the nerves, and the body acts upon the command—whether it be moving, remembering, or even breathing. The entire process is much like sending commands through a keyboard, albeit without the 0's or 1's. The human body is nature's computer.

The VERITAS program ran much like a search engine would on a regular internet connection, save for it acted upon the memory of the brain.

"Let's see what you're made of, mister," Fai grumbled, closing his hand around the bundle of nerves that surrounded the heart's tissue. His own signals began to override the electrical pulses in Kurogane's body, and within seconds, he was in command of the small amount of technology inside the other man.

Fai's eyes flashed white as his sight was suddenly flooded with data. He fell inside the storm, tumbling head over heels in information. It overwhelmed him like no other search had before, memories and emotions filling him until he thought his own hard drives would be wiped clean from the sheer intensity of the experiences his programming was simulating.

_He's seen pictures of stars before, but he has never seen the real thing. The sky here is too dull, too heavy, too close for stars to be anything but a legend. Not even the Sun is visible anymore, light synthesized by technology within the Biospheres. Outside of the bubbles is night, pitch black and cold, a tundra of death. _

_He knows because he's ventured outside of the Biosphere. The air outside the filtration systems is old and stagnant, heavy with the scent of aged pollutants and death. There is no natural light outside of the Council-approved living spaces, glowing towers of radioactive ice marking the way through the scarred planet. He knows that it is inhabitable outside of the Biosphere, but people still live here, amongst crumbling landmarks of old and ice, dying slowly and agonizingly, hair falling out and blood trickling from their mouths. Poisoning from the glowing towers takes children first, leaving parents to suffer; teens are killed by the heavy smog that bears upon the barren earth, smothering their radiation-weakened lungs; parents die from starvation after watching their children waste away before them._

_He knows that the council turns their eye from this. He knows that they chose to flee to the safety of Infinium and the far reaches of space rather than fix the mess they created on the world they originated from. _

_No one cares. No one bothers. They have already forgotten about the next generation, the one that has to live with what they broke. He is one of the forgotten, wandering around hating the world around him. The only thing he cherishes is his family, who hold the same goal as he; to fix the world that broke first. He is only ten, yet he is one of the ones that help smuggle people into the Biospheres, that gives food, that in the dead of night, sabotages connections to Infinium… _

_And yet… _

Fai tried to break away from the program; too much. His data was crashing; "END PROGRAM!" He screamed, trying to yank away, but the program was frozen, stubbornly continuing the connection.

He'd never seen the extent of the destruction of the beginning of After End, the nuclear holocaust that claimed The World so many centuries ago, or the continued decay that Infinium brought. He'd never felt anything so strongly. He had never realized before that his own motives were from childish boredom; the idea that when the world became better, it would be because _he _had helped. That he wasn't actually helping a single goddamn thing.

"END!! Stop, oh, god, please, _**stop**_!" He shrieked, feeling himself shut down; "_**Ctrl-Alt-Del**_**!**"

_His mother was coughing, blood trickling from the hand clasped over her mouth. His father held her tightly, face white. The ventures "outside" were taking their toll. The man gently set his wife down on their bed, smoothing her hair, "It will be okay," he whispered. _

_He turned to watch the pair of eyes watching fearfully from the crack in the doorway; "Kurogane, come in here." _

_Kurogane slid through the cracks, staring up at his father. He was eleven now. He knew his way around all the weapons his father had taught him to use; he had killed a man who had attacked him, crazed from the poisonous pollutants that filled his body. He was no longer a child. _

"_Kurogane, your mother and I do not want you to go outside anymore," his father commanded sternly. _

"_Why not?!" _

"_Because… we can do more alive than dead, son." _

_Kurogane had believed his parents until they began to use Infinium. They claimed they were searching for a group headed by an old friend of his father's that went by the initials Y and I. They began to spend their entire life there, day by day; soon they had forgotten all about their son. _

…_One day, the Biosphere failed. Radiation had eaten away at it until it cracked, all technology crashing. Most of the people within their sphere did not experience the failure, for they had generators within their own dwellings. Kurogane's family did not. _

_By the time everything was brought back online, his parents were unresponsive. They were not dead… _

_But they weren't there either. _

"STOP IT!"

Fai barely registered the voice, nor the violent force used to detach his connection from Kurogane's organic mainframe.

It all… just faded to black, his eyes fluttering shut as his hardwire shut down.

**X**

His first reaction was that of anxiety, the type of nerves that flow through you on the onslaught of a battle—the man had plunged his hand straight into his chest… And yet he felt no pain. So he was not dead, or being killed.

Kurogane gasped as a jolt of electricity jolted through his body, rendering his limbs tingling and limp. He could not move. He watched the man's eyes flash white, then his own vision went black, followed by the Technicolor of his own memories.

Those were his memories, his thoughts. Those were enough to kill him where he stood if the wrong person saw them. They were his, his alone. His secret, his family, his to see, his to guard alone…

"STOP IT!"

**X**

**System restored.  
****All backup data installed.  
****Running diagnostics…  
****Running…Running…Running…Running…  
****Diagnostic complete:  
****Disks A through 25-Z are cleared.  
****Virus corruption: 25%  
****Firewalls inoperable. Update required.  
****Programs forcibly ended at 15.23.6/20.54-00938 CRT. Ended program: VERITAS.  
****Error report on Program VERITAS available.  
****All systems are operable.**

Fai groaned at the green light burning into his retinas from the start-up report on his eye screen. His entire body ached and his head throbbed. He sat slowly, his muscles screaming in protest. It felt like he'd been run over by a truck—he figured he'd been thrown against a wall when the program had finally crashed.

He opened his eyes slowly, the white light of the chatroom made his eyes water. He blinked, a fuzzy shadow cut through the light above him, "What…?"

"So you've finally come to, huh?" A voice sneered.

As Fai's vision cleared, he could clearly see that he was screwed. Big time.

Kurogane stood over him, absolutely livid, a sword in hand.

And that sword was pointed directly at his throat, tip pressed lightly into the collar of his shirt.

"Shit," Fai swore, feeling the blade press deeper into his clothes to his skin.

"Sounds about right."


End file.
